What If
by Girl Of Hope
Summary: Spoilers for the end of Episode Four and theories on Ep Five later. Max travels to an alternate time after what happened at the dump, but everything in this world seems normal-ish. No animals dying, or double moons. Maybe she was mean to end up here. Contains romance as a third genre.
1. Normal

**_A.N. Quick note here (there will be one at the bottom too) there are spoilers to episode four in here, and this is taking place after the end of episode four in a different world (I haven't figured out how to explain this yet, so please just roll with it)._**

The rays of the sun burned at her face through the window of the bus. Max was eager to get off Blackwell campus to see Chloe, hoping that, unlike the other alternate world she had visited, Chloe would be fine. Along the beach, people were running along, sunbathing or eating; no beached whales, or dying animals to be seen.

Everything seemed… normal.

If Chloe was okay then maybe it all was. Max had avoided everyone on campus, making a beeline to the bus stop where she knew one had to pull up roughly when she arrived. She had impeccable timing when Max actually paid attention to the time.

The bus rolled slowly to a halt, allowing Max to step off just around the corner from Chloe's house. She considered the blue painted house more of a home than her actual home. It looked the same as always, and the noise of the television, or was it the stereo in Chloe's room, blaring was a sign that everything was normal in this alternate world.

Max rapped her knuckles against the wood of the door twice, hoping she was loud enough for Joyce or anyone to hear her. She nearly fell backwards when she saw who had answered the door.

"William?" The kind man smiled at her, the winkles around his eyes forming as his teeth showed.

"Max, it's been a while!" William moved to the side, allowing Max to step through the threshold and into the home. Everything did look the same, at least. There were photos of Max and Chloe, William and Joyce, Joyce and Chloe, and Chloe and William. Chloe had a similar haircut to Max's.

"Yeah, I- I know." Max stammered, nearly tripping on her own shoes as she walked through the tiny hallway to the living room. The mantra of 'Everything looks the same,' repeated over and over in Max's mind.

"Chloe, Max is here!" William shouted at the base of the staircase. The thumping of music was abruptly switched off, the sound of feet stomping down the stairs. Max felt a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders from behind her, making her nearly lose her balance.

"Max!" Chloe spun Max around, quickly holding her friend close once again. Max held on just as tightly now, her best friend was just like how she was before her dad died, happy and so Chloe again. The punk chick might have been a rebellious style she had adopted after her dad died, and she rocked it, but it wasn't the same full of life and positive girl Max knew her best friend really was.

"Wow, wait until classes tomorrow, I'll get to be seen hanging with the coolest chick at Blackwell again." Chloe held a loose grip on Max's fingers in one of her hands as they walked over to the couch. "Assuming that you won't be hanging with the Vortex Club again, right?"

"No fucking way am I going to hang out with them when I have you." Chloe smiled at her friend, and settled into the couch. The pair sat there for hours, talking and watching television, sitting in a comfortable silence that they seemed to have grown used to. Like, they didn't need words between them all of the time.

XXXX

"You got Jefferson up first?" Chloe asked as she started up her car. Max shivered a little at the mention of her teacher; then tried to remember exactly how she got out of the "Dark Room" after he had drugged her. She couldn't remember anything.

"Yeah," Max tried to keep her voice steady, struggling to keep her breakfast down at the thought of being in the same school as the psycho, much more in the very same room. Her thoughts wandered to what Chloe had said the day before, about her being considered 'cool'.

"Chloe, why would I hang out with the Vortex Club when I have you?"

"I dunno," Chloe mumbled, keeping her attention on the road. "You were the one who started partying with them after you met Victoria and Nathan."

"I'm friends with them?" Max whispered to herself, but she hadn't realised Chloe could hear her.

"Yeah." Chloe dragged the word out to emphasise the point. "You are dating Nathan, right?"

The car stopped as Max head clicked the pieces together.

"I'm what?"

 ** _A.N. I got this idea, yes, there are some spoilers! I just got curious with the pairing and thought that maybe there could be a world where things could go right for Max, and maybe have some of the meaner characters be a little nicer. Also, in later chapters I will theorise what I think happened at the end of episode four and what could happen in episode five. I hope you all like this because it seems a little different (says the girl writing a story about being in a different dimension about a game where the main character can time travel. Fuck, saying this is the different thing is strange)._**


	2. Relationships

"If anyone is actually paying attention," Mr Jefferson raised his voice slightly, grabbing the attention of any person who wasn't paying attention to the lecture. He was considered a cool teacher (despite what he thought of himself), he had the desks arranged so that they were in a circle, almost. He was able to see if people were paying attention, so no one could hide.

"I would like to remind everyone about the 'Everyday Heroes Contest' that I'll be announcing the winner of by the end of the week. Some of you still have to submit your pictures in." He looked at Max longer than anyone else he had glanced at. Max got a shiver down her spine at his gaze, she knew how evil this man could be.

'Calm down, Max,' she thought as she steady her breathing quietly. 'Jefferson might not be evil here.'

She thought back to one of her last memories in the real time line. Chloe and Max had been searching for the body in the dump, the person they suspected of being Rachael but upon reflection they couldn't be sure. They had only dug up where the person's leg was.

Chloe had been yelling, Max had been trying to quiet her down hoping to get to the scene before Nathan, whom had supposedly texted Chloe's phone. Max suspected it was a disposable photo she and Chloe had collected since Nathan would have used it for his drugs and shit. But they hadn't expected what happened.

Chloe had a bullet through her brain, Max had been stung and stabbed by something on the back of her neck. Her vision already began to blur, her hand was up to rewind time but nothing worked. Jefferson stood over Max, looming with a gun in hand.

"Max?" A gentle voice asked softly, awaking her from her daydream with glassy eyes. She blinked quickly, her vision returning to normal. Nathan sat beside her, his hand moving over to grasp the closest one he could reach. "You okay?"

"Fine." Max replied quickly, not comfortable with Nathan being nice to her in any way, much less holding her hand.

"Come on, I need an excuse to skip classes for today." Nathan stood from the chair he had seated himself in beside Max. "And you're the perfect excuse."

"This can't be good on my grades," Max mumbled as she rose out of her chair, moving it under the desk when she was standing.

"You said that about me helping you out with your studies months ago, and you've been improving in your classes." Nathan moved to hold his hands on Max's hips, up toward her ribs as opposed to going down where, even though his parent pretty much owned the school, groping his girlfriend still wouldn't have been appropriate. "Just for today, we can get the work you miss out on later with a little negotiating from my parents."

Max tried her hardest to not pull her hand away from Nathan's as they walked out of the building that the classrooms where situated in. The campus grounds were pristine as usual thanks to Samuel. 'Wonder how his squirrels are going', Max thought. Nathan stopped walking, and Max had stopped daydreaming long enough to realise why they had stopped. Chloe was running over to them, out of breath when she finally reached the pair. Running was never Chloe's strong suit.

"I've gotta bail on lunch today. My mum needs me to help out at the Two Whales, she sprained her wrist or something while she was there and her asshole boss won't let her have the day off." Chloe quickly hugged Max after explaining the situation and then groaned as she started running towards the parking lot. 'Chloe can really exaggerate, sometimes'.

"Wanna get some lunch? Or were you thinking about getting some photos of me for the 'Everyday Heroes' Contest?" Nathan, to Max's bewilderment, nearly horror on the inside, joked and had a kind smile on his face. The Nathan from her world shouldn't be suck a prick, he could actually have a nice looking smile if he tried. And wasn't high or drunk, or just paranoid in general.

"I don't think I'm going to enter a photo." Nathan released the grip he had on the hand he had been hold, Max took the opportunity to wring her fingers nervously..

"Why not, it's an amazing opportunity." They had wandered over to a large, old tree, with no one sitting under it; both sat down, Nathan resting his back on the tree and Max sitting in front of him. "You wouldn't shut up about what to photograph for it last week.

So, she must be somewhat more confident in this world. Max usually only rambled as a kid when she was excited about something, she must not have changed that as she grew into being an adult.

"If I entered a photo in, maybe I should get one of Chloe." Max roller her head, and ran through the possibilities of photographs.

"Dress her up as a pirate?" Nathan was trying not to laugh. She must be close to him to tell him about the pirate games she and Chloe would play as children. The pair rarely told anyone else about their childhoods unless they were trusted.

"Hey, Chloe and I would have ruled Arcadia Bay!" Max giggled, and she almost never giggled.

"You and I can, now." Nathan opened his mouth to speak again when Victoria shouted. She, and some other girls behind her, walked over to sit under the shade of the tree too. Victoria sat beside Max, Dana next to Victoria, Courtney by Nathan ('Say nothing, Max') and some more people filling in the rest of the circle.

What had surprised Max was that Kate, whom she had somehow managed to save in her world, now sat directly across from her in a Vortex Club circle. There was no crucifix hanging from her neck, her face wasn't as pale and sickly looking as it had been from the real timeline, and she wasn't wearing her usual button up shirt with a long sleeved Cardigan over it with the long skirt and nurses shoes. She was actually wearing a nice light blue silk shirt that had a thicker layer attached to the top see-through part, denim shirts and high top converse (brand new, to boot). Her hair was still pulled back from her face, but was pulled up in a ponytail instead of the high bun she would usually wear.

She looked like a normal teenager, not a pious young woman who followed The Good Book (despite every person and their dog reverting to at least sin once in their lifetime). And it was a great look on her, she was beautiful and it showed when she wasn't depressed and bullied. If Max ever got back to her world, maybe she could tell Kate about the version she was seeing. Though, mixing fabrics wasn't Kate. That is a sin.

Kate was in the Vortex Club? Max finally got over how good her friend looked to remember the fact that Kate was volunteering to sit within the circle. How and why floated in Max's mind, along with the long list of other questions about this world.

Why was Max in the Vortex Club?

Why was she dating Nathan Prescott?

Why was he not a dick to every person here?

How did Max and Victoria become friends?

Why is it that it seems like Max never moved from Arcadia Bay since she and Chloe are so tight knit?

And how and why was Max in this alternate world?

 ** _A.N. I am loving this story. I still don't know how I'm going to end this, I'm kind of just going with all of this. And I'm slowly thinking how I'm going to have Max figure out how she got into this world. This chapter was a cute one, because I felt like it. I seriously think that if Nathan had the chance to not be on drugs, he actually could be kind of nice. It's not his fault his family is fucked up, his dad hasn't exactly cut off his money to buy those drug and shit, has he? Small gripe with the character plot hole there, sorry. Anyways, hopefully I can get more out soon, writing this is making my eyes hurt from looking at a screen so much, once I get my glasses I should be fine. If you have any suggestions to where to take the story then I'll be happy to hear them._**


	3. Stories

Max, while making all of the chatter around her about another party background noise, lay on the grass; though she wasn't directly in its path, the heat radiated through the foliage from the sun. She wasn't worried about sinister plans, or time traveling; everything just seemed serine, different from what she was used to, but calm.

"Mad Max," Victoria shook Max's shoulder, Max opened her eyes slowly. "We gotta head over to Biology, you coming?"

"We're gonna cut today," Nathan answered, earning a funny look from Victoria in response. She walked off without another word, her hips swayed as she walked towards the building where classes were held.

"Two Whales?" Max nodded in response, sitting up then moving to stand up. Nathan scooped up his backpack, Max already had her messenger bad slung on her shoulder, the strap going across her chest. She trailed a few paces behind Nathan as they exited the school grounds.

His car was nice, the paint job looked new and was kept pristine. The only thing wrong with the truck* was that there was a bunch of tape over the top of the left tail light. He kept the interior of the car cleaner than anyone Max knew.

"You alright?" Nathan started the engine and rolled out of the carpark, glancing at Max from the corner of his eye.

"I'm fine… just tired, I guess." Max let her head rest on the headrest, her eyes looking out the window at the view rushing past. "It's been kind of a weird week."

"Don't know what kind of week you've been living. You were fine yesterday."

Max didn't know what to say. She hadn't tried to rewind time once since she was in Blackwell the day before, and the only thought Max had at the time was a desperate dash to Chloe's house. Just like the last alternate world she went to, she sat under the shade of that huge tree near the front of the campus, but at least she was alone at the time. No one to insinuate if she was high, or have quizzical stares.

Nathan had pulled his SUV alongside the road (the parking for the diner was full) and cut the engine. Max hadn't registered Nathan had jumped out of the car and walked over to her side until he had opened the door.

"Okay," Nathan reached over and released the seatbelt, almost lifting Max out to stand on the ground. "You're not okay. You're zoning out like crazy." He locked his car and slung an arm around his shoulders. She could feel a small amount of muscle being pressed against her back, he obviously worked out, but it was nothing crazy.

The bell atop the entry door dinged when it opened, the familiar sound of talking, the smell of bacon sizzling and fresh coffee took over Max's senses and she wanted to devour any bit of food that was put in front of her. Joyce had taken their order, mentioning that Nathan pay for his food and Max would get hers free, or Nathan paid double. For some reason, he choose the latter and tipped enough for Joyce and Chloe.

'Nice Nathan is almost as scary as the crazy, drugged up Nathan,' Max tried to keep her mouth completely shut. She gave Nathan a tight lipped smile, pretty much the corners of her mouth turning upward a fraction, when he placed an unprovoked kiss on her cheek and mumbled something. Max wasn't really listening to anything.

Her smile fully broke out at the sight of Chloe. Her best friend was carrying, no balancing, two plates on one arm, and a coffee pot and two mugs on a circular black tray on the opposite hand. 'She must work here a lot of she figured out the plate and tray balancing act,' Max thanked Chloe for her food and coffee before she started wolfing down the food.

"Are you trying to put us out of business, Max?" Chloe joked as she slid into the booth seat across from Max and Nathan. She wasn't wearing the apron she just had on, but Max knew that if Chloe had to go back to Blackwell later that day that her friend would have to change at home first. There was a large patch of white flour that was clearly visible on her light blue tee.

"Hey, Joyce said if anyone was going to eat all of the food here, it would be you and I!" Max retorted, after she swallowed the food that she had been eating. The bacon and eggs were delicious, and she had snuck a bite out of Nathan's pancakes when he hadn't been looking.

"True, I might have to make myself something soon." Chloe stifled a laugh and then grabbed Max's hand, hauling her best friend to the women's bathroom.

"Hey!" Nathan didn't shout, no even bothered to look his way, but he did call out loud enough for the two best friends to hear. "One of you ate some of my food."

"Nice one, Mad Max." Chloe high-fived Max, the two eighteen year olds grinned.

"You and I should talk later on." Max leaned slightly on a sink nearby. "I have a crazy story that you might not believe."

"It can't be crazier than how you met your boyfriend, or how he's actually nice." Chloe looked like the previous jokes were gone, like she had sobered up after a good night out.

"He wasn't nice before he and I-" Max trailed off, her voice ended up a whisper by the time she broke off.

"Did Zachary nail you in the head with a football?" Chloe felt around Max's head to check for any kind of bump on her scalp. "Seems like you're distracted or suffering from amnesia. You better not have turned into one of those fucking terrible movies about amnesia, Max!"

Max moved away from Chloe, removing the hands that were holding her skull. Her head felt like it would explode, and Max would be damned if she allowed Chloe's hands to bear the brunt of the explosion of brains and cranial debris.

"I have to go, I'm sorry Chloe." Max began to back out of the bathroom, hitting the wall behind her as she somehow struggled to open the door to the diner. The chatter of the familiar surroundings no longer comforted her; all Max did was make an invisible path to the doorway to get outside.

Usually Max would have reserved walking along the beach for sunset or sunrise, but she needed the open space, and the 'clean' air. How could the air be considered clean if a convoy of three trucks drove up the road one after the other spewing out their exhaust into the already polluted ozone? There weren't any whales on the shoreline? Maybe this universe wasn't going to Hell after all.

Then again, this Max Caulfield was dating Nathan Prescott. The world might not be ending, but Max was wondering how she could stand him in this universe when he was such a pretentious, stuck up shit-head who was already in trouble for his meds in the normal world. Max was still baffled about how she could be in any good relationship with the rich kid.

"Wait up!" Nathan didn't sound tired, like Chloe had sounded earlier today with her theatrics, as he ran up to Max. His arm went around her waist when he caught up, the pair ended up walking along the pathway that led down to the beach. Worse, Max actually didn't feel as strange with the arm around her. The sunlight looked nice on Nathan's face, so much nicer than the artificial lighting of Blackwell; but the sliver of a smile he had on his lips helped too.

"You are going to tell me what's wrong." Nathan sat down on the sand, shielding his eyes from the sun overhead as he looked up at Max. She quickly followed to sit beside him, keeping her distance. "You've been freaking me out this morning."

"I've been freaked out all week, so I kinda know how you feel." Max crossed her legs and moved her messenger bag into her lap. She swiftly took out her camera (a small sigh that the camera she owned was her own, and not some new one) and got a picture of the horizon; the colours never turned out like the view she could see with her Polaroid camera, but she still loved it more than any digital camera she could ever receive.

"Why haven't you talked about it yet, we usually do?" Max actually didn't doubt that. Judging by what she knew of the Nathan from her world and the relationship he had with his parents, he'd need all of the talks he could get from someone that was the psychiatrist that his parents paid for. Why should Nathan (in any world) have to make an appointment to speak with his parents if he had a problem?

"Because I don't even know what's going on." She quickly answered back. Yes, Max might have sounded somewhat snippy in her response, but she was frustrated.

"Chloe said you used to be an ass." Max stated when Nathan didn't say anything. "I'd say I find that hard to believe, but in all honesty I don't."

"Yeah, I used to get pissed at anyone who looked in my direction. My sister hated me for a bit; she stopped emailing me for a while. My parents paid for doctors, and psychiatrists to have me 'examined', but they don't actually give a shit about me. Only the Prescott image." Nathan smirked at Max, he head cocked to the side as he turned to her. "You know that though."

"When did your attitude change, then? Just curious."

"Nosy, as usual, Max." The smirk turned into a genuine smile as Nathan leaned back in the sand. "It was roughly when you came to Blackwell a month ago. You narced on me to Wells about having a gun and my parents were finally sick of it. They took the doctors' advice and got me off the meds. It was actually a good thing, I became less paranoid of everything after a few days.

"By then I confronted you, but I got you cornered one day. I didn't know much about you, Victoria didn't say much about you, and with her being jealous she wasn't the best source for info. You were freaked out, but then you held you own; I got real close." Nathan moved his face to be about an inch from Max's, he studied her face for a few seconds. "And something kinda clicked inside of me that you honestly didn't care who my family was like everyone else did. I heard you had stood up for Kate, you had the guts to go against me; but there was honest caring that I saw in you. I hadn't seen that before, drugged up or not, it was never there written on anyones face before you."

"So, what did you do next?" Max asked quietly. "Humour me." Max added when Nathan looked confused at her question.

"I kissed you." Nathan pressed his lips to Max's softly, he lingered for a couple of seconds before he pulled away slowly. "Just like that." He kissed her again twice more quickly before moving away fully.

 _ **A.N. I really hope I wrote the ending well, I was thinking about the perfect way to put the kiss and now I think I hate myself for how I did it. Honestly, I don't think I could have ever got it how I wanted it, though. Still thinking about how Max could have got out of the Dark Room, I'll figure something out (hopefully before episode five comes out), oh, and I brought Life Is Strange today, and I'm already loving it. I'll be playing more tomorrow when I get home from what I have to do tomorrow. I love Victoria's "Go fuck your selfie" line so much and it was even funnier to hear it for myself when I am playing it and not from watching someone else playing it. Seriously, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know your suggestions. I'll run out soon.**_

 _ ***The reason I had this here is to point out that while I did say 'truck' I was going to put 'Ute'. It's an Australian term for the cars that people in other countries call 'pickup trucks', I just didn't want to confuse anyone. Kind of like how we call RVs a 'Caravan'.**_


	4. IMPORTANT

To everyone who is worried that this story has stopped; it has not.

However due to a friend of mine going missing then found murdered nearly two weeks afterwards, I have decided to temporarily put this story on hiatus. The story of the game, and most fics on a whole, involve the Rachel Amber stuff and with her situation being so close to home I just can't write for this right now.

The first time I have written in seven weeks was a chapter for an oringal story I have started on that I wrote last night. It's on my Quotev and Wattpad accounts. I'd have it up on but due to the fact that a person can't submit oringal works on there it seemed pointless to put it on there.

I will be continuing this, don't worry. But I do need time for my situation (it's been nearly seven weeks since she died, but still) and I'm out of ideas, totally uninspired.

Love you all, and I'll seeing you all soon with another chapter.

~Chels


End file.
